Capitalist among socialists

NORTH SAANICH, B.C. — Back in the fall of 2003, Gwyn Morgan was the chief executive of Encana Corp. when he phoned the Liberal premier of British Columbia with news that a big cheque was on its way.

The government of Gordon Campbell had just implemented major reforms to encourage oil and gas investment, providing Calgary-based Encana with the right political foundation to make a huge bet on Cutbank Ridge, the natural gas shale play that eventually grew into one of North America’s largest.

“Mr. Premier, you are going to have some $400-million more in your treasury tomorrow than yesterday,” the founder of Encana recalls telling the politician after the company revealed itself as the main buyer in one of the richest oil and gas rights auctions in the province’s history.

“You and your government can take this as an endorsement of your policies,” Mr. Morgan said.

And of course, billions more slid in after that.

In February this year, Encana announced the sale of 50% of the Cutbank Ridge play, southwest of Dawson Creek, to PetroChina for $5.4-billion.

Now retired in North Saanich on Vancouver Island, where he lives in an oceanfront mansion amid blooming gardens and old forest, Mr. Morgan is just as committed to nurturing a pro-business environment in the province.

That’s one of the reasons he said he got involved in B.C. politics, supporting Christy Clark’s bid to succeed Mr. Campbell as the province’s premier, which she won in February. An expert on business, finance and energy, Mr. Morgan then served on Ms. Clark’s transition team and remains engaged, although he said his role is not official at this point.

The province is, indeed, facing a return to a less-accommodating business environment. The main provincial NDP opposition has just picked Adrian Dix, who is on the left of the NDP political spectrum, as its new leader. Mr. Dix wants to roll back corporate tax cuts and will fight to scrap the harmonized sales tax, which is favoured by the business community. Meanwhile, the centre-right vote could be split as the B.C. Conservative party, led by former federal Conservative MP John Cummins, attempts a revival by capitalizing on resentment against the Liberals.

Ms. Clark is expected to call an election after the province holds a mail-in-ballot referendum on the HST in June. The Liberals have been in power in B.C. since 2001, when they defeated an NDP government.

“I never lived in a province that was run by socialists before,” Mr. Morgan said in an interview. “I was able to watch it from not much of a distance. We had a company that had opportunities here, but we never really moved on them significantly because of the toxic set of rules and attitudes in the government. So of course, when Campbell was elected, things changed dramatically, as did our investments.

“The point is that we see the damage that was done by the NDP for so long, and you can spend decades building wonderful structure of some sort, but you could tear it down very quickly. The province is still recovering from those things, even though it’s 10 years later. So, first and foremost, I felt that Christy had the best chance of keeping the province from going socialist in the next election.”

The relationship with Ms. Clark allowed Mr. Morgan to continue to help shape public policy at a time the province has never been so crucial to the Canadian energy sector, which needs to build new infrastructure through B.C. to reach new customers in Asia.

When he was the CEO of Encana, Mr. Morgan, a federal Conservative who shows support for Gary Lunn, the Conservative Party candidate in the federal election for Saanich-Gulf Islands, with a sign on his lawn, was an advisor to Stephen Harper. A year after his retirement in 2005, Mr. Morgan was picked by Mr. Harper to chair a commission to oversee federal government appointments, but a parliamentary committee rejected the nomination.

As the home to a third of Canada’s natural gas reserves, it’s important that B.C. nurture with its policies the resource’s huge growth potential, helps develop new markets and supports use of natural gas as a motor fuel, Mr. Morgan said.

“We were always a leader [at Encana] of that business in Canada, but even as the leading company, I could never imagine the supply that has come on in recent times,” Mr. Morgan said.

The province has done a good job of creating a positive fiscal environment for the energy sector, but more could be done through better coordination of provincial and federal regulatory reviews of projects and by helping companies with aboriginal relations, he said.

While no longer directly involved in the oil and gas business, the 65-year-old grandfather of two remains one of Canada’s corporate heavyweights as chairman of the Montreal-based engineering company, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and a director of the world’s largest bank, London-based HSBC Holdings PLC.

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